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Marijuana infused products are not new, but they are certainly growing in popularity. Marijuana edibles like brownies and cookies are a great way to medicate. They don’t require inhaling anything, and the effects can be felt for a lot longer compared to inhaling vapor or smoke. Marijuana topicals are very effective at treating arthritis and tendinitis. I have bad tendinitis, and the only thing that works for me is marijuana topicals. Pharmaceuticals, over the counter or prescription, have done nothing for me.

Health Canada allows medical marijuana to be consumed by patients in Canada, however, the rules only allow consumption and sales of dried marijuana. That is, until a B.C. Court of Appeals judge ruled prohibition of marijuana infused products to be unconstitutional. Per CBC:

In her written reasons, Justice Risa Levine said this specification “is arbitrary and cannot be justified in a free and democratic society.”

Levine went on to state that when patients choose to use edible forms of marijuana, it “was a matter of necessity, or put another way, the restriction to dried marijuana interfered with their physical or psychological integrity.”

I have no idea why marijuana infused products were banned in the first place in Canada. Marijuana is medicine, whether it be in smoke, vapor, edible, or topical form. If a person is qualified as a medical marijuana patient, then they should be allowed to consume medical marijuana in whatever form they choose. A ‘one size fits all’ approach is harmful to patients. I’m glad the B.C. Court did the right thing.

The battle to legalize medical marijuana in Florida has been contentious. Both sides have raised millions of dollars. The ‘No on 2′ campaign, which opposes medical marijuana, has used some shady campaign tactics to try to scare voters into voting ‘no’ on Election Day. For instance, anti-medical marijuana supporters in Florida have suggested that marijuana leads to gay sex and AIDS. That’s despicable, even for politics.

The ‘No on 2′ campaign has rolled out a new tactic which is something right out of the Reefer Madness movie. The ‘No on 2′ campaign released an image suggesting that if medical marijuana is legalized, then marijuana cookies will become the new date rape drug of choice by predators. Below is the image:

(via Facebook)

I wish I was making this stuff up, but unfortunately, I’m not. Never mind that patients are suffering in Florida. Never mind that medical marijuana can help many of these people, and reduce their dependency on harmful pharmaceuticals. Instead of focusing on the facts and the science, the ‘No on 2′ campaign is relying on outright scare tactics in an attempt to trick voters into thinking that medical marijuana will lead to date rape. To say I’m disgusted is a huge understatement.

The new tactic, and every tactic for that matter, used by the ‘No on 2′ campaign is a disgrace, and highlights just how desperate they are. Almost half of the United States has already legalized medical marijuana, yet I have never heard of a ‘cookie date rape epidemic’ happening anywhere. This campaign strategy is wrong, offensive, and should not be tolerated. Vote yes on 2!

Cops can be real jerks when it comes to marijuana. They really enjoy nothing more then messing with completely innocent potheads who are just trying to get by. Even those that are totally and 100% compliant with state laws aren't safe from the police. Many patients risk their freedom to grow their own medicine, a right which they have voted on and passed. There should be no raids on grow operations anymore but they're still happening. Thankfully, patients are beginning to fight back and the law, for once, is on their side.

Cops bust down doors with battering rams, tear plants out of their pots, and break equipment during a raid. The damages that they can cause to a grow and to the premises themselves can stretch in to the millions of dollars, money that the patients want to get back. Patients who get in trouble and are then acquitted or have the charges against them dropped are fighting back with this illegal treatment and seeking the satisfaction they deserve; compensation for hard work and income spent that was destroyed by a bunch of cocky "enforcers".

Thanks to the new laws, cops are held accountable for the damages that they cause during raids. Now, police are a little more careful when they come storming in... Rather, walking in now. In place of the once violent "take down" tactics, some police forces are even just taking photos and taking leaf clippings as evidence of alleged "crimes" in order to avoid steep lawsuits. Legal experts everywhere say that as cannabis continues to gain support and the laws change in favor of patients and users, officials are going to have no choice but to use caution when dealing with cannabis related offenses. "Law enforcement is going to have to think more carefully about what their procedures are and how those procedures might need to change in light of change in the law," says Sam Kamin, a law professor at the University of Denver, to the Associated Press.

Colorado law says that police have to return all seized medical marijuana back to those who are found not guilty. This gives patients a little bit of comfort, knowing that even if the cops decide to throw weight around, they will get their compensation. At least, that is in Colorado. California is a different story, where even the court orders don't guarantee that a patient will get their hard work back after the terrible journey through the court system. There was an issue in Pasadena earlier this year where the cops refused to return $8,000 worth of medical marijuana to a man named Charles Pollard, even though the Los Angeles Superior Court ordered them to.

The hemp plant never ceases to amaze me. It’s so versatile. Hemp can be used to make medicine, clothes, paper, and many other things. One thing that hemp can apparently also be used for, which is very cool and I didn’t know about, is to make better super-batteries. Per NBC:

Industrial hemp, the non-psychoactive cousin of marijuana, can play a role in manufacturing super-powerful supercapacitors for energy storage at a cost that’s far cheaper than graphene, researchers report. The hemp-based technology took center stage Tuesday at the American Chemical Society’s national meeting in San Francisco. A team led by David Mitlin, an engineering professor at Clarkson University, heated up hemp fibers to create carbon nanosheets that can be used as electrodes for supercapacitors. Compared with graphene, the hemp-derived carbon is “a little bit better, but it’s 1,000 times cheaper,” Mitlin told NBC News.

How cool is that!? Not only does hemp make better batteries, it’s far cheaper. While the article didn’t specifically state it, I’d imagine that the hemp used for the process is much safer and easier to dispose of than what is currently being used. Is there anything that hemp can’t do?

It sounds like the engineer behind the research has started a company trying to bring this technology to the marketplace. He is looking for partners, and I’d imagine he won’t have a hard time finding any. What he will have a hard time with, by his own admission, is getting around hemp laws which make it hard, if not impossible, to get the raw product he needs to make the super batteries. Reform hemp laws, allow this guy to make super batteries, and the world will be a much better place as a result. This is a no-brainer.

Among the arguments for keeping weed illegal, there was one that went on about how dangerous drugged drivers are. People were worried about us stoners getting all potted up and driving like the crazy maniacs that marijuana turns us in to... When reality, the only problem with stoned drivers is that they forget that stoplights don't actually turn green and that the drive-thru doesn't stay open until 3am. Stoned drivers are (for the most part) pretty harmless. The main goal of their adventure? Get to where they're going without getting pulled over. Which means that a stoned driver will do whatever they can to avoid police interaction, which also means following all of the traffic laws.

Anti-cannabis groups may try to throw weight around with statistics like in 2001, there was a surge in the number of drivers that were found to have smoked weed. They also go on to quote studies that show an increase in the number of drivers testing positive for cannabis that were also involved in fatal accidents. In addition, there was also information released that even before Washington opened the first legal cannabis store that the number of stoned drivers jumped by a third. Don't be scared of these numbers though... The testing process for these drivers only includes marijuana metabolites. That's different than inebriation. Marijuana Metabolites can stay in the human body for days after marijuana's effects wear off. Those same metabolites can stay in the system for weeks, throwing these statistics way off. All these tests mean is that the user has smoked some weed at some point over the last couple of days/weeks.

The fatalities in Colorado are lower than the 13-year average and researchers are saying that it's the safest year so far on Colorado highways since 2002. The thought is that drivers are substituting their alcohol for cannabis instead. Since cannabis doesn't have the same blinding effects as alcohol, there aren't as many accidents because there aren't as many people drinking. Hopefully, the number of accidents will continue to decrease, only showing that cannabis isn't contributing to problems but actually solving them.

The rollout of recreational marijuana sales has been a bumpy ride in Washington. It took more than half a year longer for Washington to start legal sales compared to Colorado. Many people provide the explanation for the delay as involving the fact that Colorado had a well regulated medical marijuana framework already in place, compared to Washington that has a semi-legal medical marijuana retail industry at best. As of this week, recreational marijuana edibles are now finally available in Washington, although on a limited basis. Per The Bellingham Herald:

A representative of Top Shelf, one of the first legal retail marijuana outlets in Washington, said Wednesday, Aug. 6, the store will become the first in the state to sell edible marijuana.

Top Shelf had about 500 packages of edibles – from Green Chief of Granite Falls – available starting at 10 p.m. Wednesday, which should make some customers happy.

The three types of edibles available are a trail mix, a ‘party mix,’ and ‘crazy carnival nuts.’ I’m told by people in Washington that the prices for the edibles are ‘astronomical’ as one person stated. The price for the trail mix is five times what it’s going for at medical marijuana outlets in Washington. But, if people are willing to pay the higher price tag, so be it I guess.